Oscilloscopes, heart attacks, and electrocardiograms, oh my!

[electromotive]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about Oscilloscopes lately (and definitely hoping to win one). While that is most likely a remote possibility, I came across something quite interesting. I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail for privacy reasons, but my fiancés grandfather (whom I'm quite close to) is 80 years old. He's been in great health -- former U.S. Navy, 32° mason, 60 years married, former fireman, retired fire chief. In other words, he's tough as nails.

Today he had a heart catheterization procedure. It's nothing short of miraculous that he's still alive -- 50% blockage in one major artery, 99% blockage in the Left Anterior Descending Artery (AKA the "Widowmaker"). Fortunately it was caught *before* he had a heart attack, and will be surgically corrected. I've posted an example below:



Anyhow, he's in good spirits, and being well cared for, but I couldn't help but to take a look at the heart monitor (this is a generic photo of the unit for privacy reasons):



Does that remind you of anything? Perhaps a multi-channel oscilloscope? I did some more digging and it turns out that you can image your heartbeat with an oscilloscope, although it's not recommended because these patient monitoring units have specialized fault protection to keep you from potentially killing yourself... but the principle is largely the same:



In all seriousness, I needed to take this time to vent... to bury my mind in something I enjoy (science / electronics) while all this is going on. Surgery isn't scheduled until Monday, which worries me (I lost my father to sudden cardiac arrest in 2011 and my daughter, whom some of you are familiar with, has been resuscitated twice before because of unforseen complications of her condition.) It's nothing short of a miracle of both spiritual and scientific nature that everything came together to discover this malady in time, and thus give him a fighting chance he most likely wouldn't have had 10 or 15 years ago. It's a reminder that this is why we engineer -- the trickle-down applications of our work may be far reaching in ways we cant imagine -- visualizing a heartbeat as a waveform, for example.... being a derivative of the development of oscilloscopes.

As always, best wishes to all. Kind thoughts and prayers for Carl are greatly appreciated. If you know of any other such unexpected technology crossovers, I'd love to hear about it -- gonna be here a week or more and trying to stay positive, motivated, and forward thinking. There's an early artificial heart downstairs on display -- I'll try to get some pictures of it to share.

[Benta]

My best wishes for your fiancée's grandpa.
I've been through this one myself, though not as bad as this one. The upside is, they already done the catheter procedure and most probably installed stents, which will stabilize his condition significantly. The surgery on Monday will probably be a bypass, or?
That's routine surgery these days with an extremely high success percentage.

He'll be OK, don't worry, keep your and your fiancée's chin up.

[jmelson]

They probably could NOT stent a 99% blockage, that will likely require open-chest surgery.  Pretty heavy stuff, but it can work a lot better than the balloon angioplasty/stent job.  Much easier to catch these things earlier at a much lower % blockage, where the balloon/stent can be used.

Jon

[Muttley Snickers]

I sincerely wish this fellow all the best and a speedy recovery, for some this type of event can be a traumatic and somewhat overwhelming experience with the sudden realisation that they are mortal and closer to the end than they anticipated. It sounds like he has good caring people by his bedside and from my own recent experience this makes a tremendous difference with the knowledge that some do care and still want you around. We wish him well.

I also posted photos of those Philips ECG monitors during my hospital stay and considered building an interface for the scope, unfortunately with all the follow up doctors and specialist appointments in addition to all the tests and scans then with the discovery of other serious concerns I never got around to starting the project. There are certainly plenty of these device schematics around and I believe you can also purchase a ready to go unit but forget where I saw it, a faulty unit showing another flat line would probably scare me half to death anyway.     

[electromotive]

There are 3 known blockages of the LAD: ~99%, ~70%, and ~50%. Their orientation makes stenting impossible. Further tests have been conducted involving cardiac imaging, X-ray, and imaging related arteries in the neck. A plan has been developed, which will be finalized tomorrow and completed Monday morning. The plan involves starting blood thinners to reduce the risk of a clot, stenting the carotids if needed to greatly reduce the risk of stroke from arterial spasming, and surgically bypassing the affected LAD by harvesting a replacement vessel from Carl’s leg.

Chance of not surviving the operation: 1% Chance of complication: 5% If this would have progressed to a heart attack, 50% don’t survive long enough to make it to the hospital, and if they do the heart muscle is so damaged that mortality exceeds 90+% and would be all but certain at his age.

For those abroad, this procedure here in the United States will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $150-$250,000 USD because of the extended stay, surgery, ICU, etc.

It appeared the monitor revealed a possible clue upon further examination:

It would definitely be worth trying to determine the voltage impulse of a heartbeat.

Carl was entirely asymptomatic until recently. He has given me permission to share his story as a warning to others - he only experienced some tiredness and mild feeling of fullness in his chest.

I took a stroll to investigate the early prototype artificial heart while Carl had a chance to eat. He’s in remarkably good spirits because he realizes how fortunate he was to have this uncovered.



It turns out they use no seasoning in the meals of cardiac patients, but they did allow him some black pepper.

The Paulus Heart:







Bye for now.

[tautech]

It's a reminder that this is why we engineer -- the trickle-down applications of our work may be far reaching in ways we cant imagine -- visualizing a heartbeat as a waveform, for example.... being a derivative of the development of oscilloscopes.

Exactly and surprisingly how few ppl's know what an oscilloscope does until you explain the same as an electrocardiograph and that it's just a specialized oscilloscope.

Best wishes to gramps, he's in good hands.

[HalFET]

Hope your grandfather recovers quickly!

And kind of interesting what that Paulus heart looks like, though a bit disconcerting to see just a regular power plug hanging out of it. I'd say heart-lung machines have gotten quite a bit bigger, though I suppose that's mostly down to the peristaltic pumps. It's also interesting to look at how tiny ventricular assist devices have become in the meanwhile:



(They implant these to take the load off your heart to buy people time to get a transplant.)

[electromotive]

Surgery started at 7:56 AM EST and was completed about 3 hours later. We're going through the step-down period now. Carl was brought off of the ventilator fully within the last hour. Heart rhythm looks like the beat of a fine Swiss watch. Blood pressure looks like that of an athlete. Thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers. 

NOW FOR SOME TECHNOLOGY

Remember Theranos? The "Lab on a Chip" fraud of a company trying to do incredible things with blood analysis? Well, it turns out a similar technology (to some extent) exists. Carl has some kind of specialized port that allows continuous monitoring of various blood chemistry biometrics from sodium and potassium to kidney function. It also gives accurate, instantaneous readings of blood gasses and pressures. It's quite impressive.

[HalFET]

Glad to hear it turned out ok!